Blue Heron in Ink and Colored Pencil

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10″ x 14″, ink and colored pencil on Khadi handmade watercolor paper

I don’t know what to think about this one. It started as a drawing using brown ink, but it seemed too strong so I put in a background wash using a combination of blue and brown inks, which left a strange pink hue. Although I kept going with brown ink, I realized that I needed more color and swapped to a wide range of colored pencils in blues, browns, yellows, and greens. I think I could have kept going with this but simply stopped at this point.

This picture came from a series I took of a Blue Heron. I ended up stitching an embroidery of this same bird.

Abandoned Farm in Ink

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This old farm is in the floodplain, and it’s been hit by high waters several times. It’s probably empty, and now I’m worried that someday I’ll see bulldozers in the yard. Take a picture now, because you never know. Years ago, I snapped a picture of a barn and painted it, never thinking the barn would be knocked down the next summer.

12″ x 16″, ink on Khadi handmade cold press watercolor paper

I’m truly enjoying taking Smoothie77’s patreon course. I think it’s giving me confidence to try larger landscapes and even tackle a complicated tree like the one on the right, something I would have avoided a few months ago. I’m also enjoying using handmade paper, even with its quirks. I like having to answer the questions that get asked when something is slightly unpredictable. I have to think through things, and this paper challenges me in that way. It takes water strangely, soaks in ink easier when it’s dry, and my Lumos Pro fineliner bumps across the textured surface, which creates interesting lights and darks. Love it

Categories: Art Ink

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